


pry you open

by Anonymous



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Character Study, M/M, Twisted Personality, inspired by cheese in the trap, writing away my devastation over bad endings, yeehaw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:34:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23388853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: “It’s scary,” Hongjoong interrupts, and Seonghwa stares at him. “You go out of your way to make people trust you and then hurt them once they’ve opened their hearts to you. You smile at people as a method of obtaining something more times than you actually mean it. You flip a switch when someone’s wronged you and use your brilliance to wreak havoc on their lives despite how much good you could do with that intelligence.”“Sorry,” Seonghwa says, looking down. He doesn’t mean for it to come out that way, but quiet, covert manipulation is his only coping mechanism because he’s spent his entire life being told to “stay calm” and “be on his best behavior” as if he’s already done something wrong when he’s only ever tried hisbest.
Relationships: Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa
Comments: 15
Kudos: 126
Collections: Anonymous





	pry you open

“Do you think I’m strange?” Seonghwa asks, clenching his teeth so hard that he’s sure even Hongjoong notices the tension in his jaw. He would have reached out earlier to steady Hongjoong as he carefully limped his way to where Seonghwa was sitting, but being brushed off and flinched at three times would be devastating enough for anyone, even Seonghwa, to stop offering a helping hand. “Do you think... I’m a monster?“

Seonghwa had thought, initially, that he and Hongjoong were alike. Hongjoong had seen right through the clueless, polite act Seonghwa put on whenever he was around a large group of people, and Hongjoong had been scary in the way he displayed his contempt so openly on his face, his silence more indicative of how closely he was listening and absorbing the events around him as opposed to him not paying attention at all. 

But it’s evident now that they’re different in so many ways, for Hongjoong is pure and straightforward where Seonghwa is unapologetically twisted, lashing out in unrestrained anger while Hongjoong always lets go of his grievances, and ultimately, Hongjoong is going to leave when the peculiarities Seonghwa tries so hard to hide about himself start to pile up too high to be buried and hidden away. 

With a small smile, Hongjoong asks, “Does it hurt?” 

“Does what hurt?” 

Hongjoong gives a brief nod at Seonghwa’s hands, the knuckles bloody and bruised from what he’d done to the criminal at the apartment complex. A small amount of suffering in comparison to the amount of harm and bloodshed Seonghwa had dealt out, but what bothers him more is the direct reminder that Hongjoong had most likely heard him talking to the man in the alleyway, voice completely devoid of warmth and his words jagged like icicles, and the result had been Hongjoong becoming too afraid to let Seonghwa touch him. 

“Not really,” Seonghwa lies, flexing his fingers freely despite knowing it’ll hurt the open wounds. His poor sensitivity to other people’s emotions doesn’t make his own sense of pain any less vivid whether that pain is physical or psychological, but he’ll keep on pretending otherwise as long as he can get away with it. 

Without a word, Hongjoong presses briefly on the darkest bruise on Seonghwa’s left hand, and Seonghwa winces at the unexpected jab of pain, but he’s more caught off guard by how much it seems like Hongjoong can see directly into the inner workings of his thoughts. “It hurts, right? Do you ever think about how much stronger the dose of pain you’ve inflicted on other people is, then?” 

“I don’t mean it that way,” Seonghwa says. “I just…” 

“It’s scary,” Hongjoong interrupts, and Seonghwa stares at him. “You go out of your way to make people trust you and then hurt them once they’ve opened their hearts to you. You smile at people as a method of obtaining something more times than you actually mean it. You flip a switch when someone’s wronged you and use your brilliance to wreak havoc on their lives despite how much good you could do with that intelligence.” 

“Sorry,” Seonghwa says, looking down. He doesn’t mean for it to come out that way, but quiet, covert manipulation is his only coping mechanism because he’s spent his entire life being told to “stay calm” and “be on his best behavior” as if he’s already done something wrong when he’s only ever tried his _best_. 

“What I hate the most, however,” Hongjoong says, “is how fucking hard it is for you to be honest with me even when I’m hoping you’ll say what’s actually going through your mind. ‘ _I meant to hurt him_ ,’ not ‘ _I didn’t mean it that way._ ’ ‘ _I wanted to get rid of her,_ ’ instead of ‘ _I thought I was helping a classmate out._ ’ How am I supposed to give you honesty when you can’t even offer a fraction of it back?” 

“You don’t want that honesty from me,” Seonghwa says, stammering. “If I showed what I was thinking on the inside, you would leave just like everyone else—” 

“And yet, I’m not everyone,” Hongjoong says. His eyes are bright, and fiery, and indignant, and Seonghwa is so fascinated by the differences between their personalities even if he’s afraid that discovering more of those differences will eventually drive them apart. “I’m your boyfriend. I watched you ‘accidentally’ spill a pitcher of beer all over a girl because you wanted her to leave you alone and asked you if your hands hurt after you nearly beat a guy to death. Does it look like I’m leaving anytime soon?” 

“You flinched,” Seonghwa says. He bites his lip hard enough to puncture skin, trying to dismiss the memory of Hongjoong’s widened, terrified eyes and the tremble of his shoulders as Seonghwa had stepped closer to try and carry him in his arms. “I can’t trust someone who reacts like that once they’ve found out I’m a monster to not run away screaming, let alone _stay_.” 

“You’re not a monster,” Hongjoong says, and that makes Seonghwa’s brows raise in surprise. “You’re caged in, by yourself as well as all of the expectations other people push onto you, and you’ve been hurt too many times by people with ulterior motives that it’s become the default for you to to do the same to them. You can’t be honest because no one ever gave you permission to be.” 

He slips his hand into Seonghwa’s, and it’s… warm. Seonghwa hadn’t noticed how much he cherished that body heat until he’d come close to losing it forever, hadn’t realized how attached to Hongjoong he’d become until their connection had nearly been severed from Seonghwa attempting to conceal his true colors. 

“But Seonghwa, you’ll never learn how to treat people like humans until you give someone the chance to treat you like one,” Hongjoong says, quietly, squeezing Seonghwa’s hand, and in the presence of a man whose courage extends much further and broader than he’d ever dared to dream, Seonghwa slowly, carefully, squeezes his hand back. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! comments are appreciated if u can give em~ ♥


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